FUNERAL. The disposal of the dead has chiefly been accomplished by inhumation and cremation, the lifeless body being for ever removed from the sight of the survi vors. Some nations, however, unwilling to part with it, or actuated by certain religious principles, have preserved it entire ; and men have been able to contemplate their fore fathers, who existed many generations previous to them selves.
The more rude and uncivilized tribes do not possess the same facilities of disposing of their dead that are pOssess ed by cultivated nations. In high and frozen latitudes, they are compelled to abandon them on the snow, which throughout the year is impenetrable, as towards the Lake of Athapuscow, and among the Chipawayan Indians ; or they cover them with branches in the woods where they expire. The ancient Colchians, Herodotus affirms, did not bury their dead, but suspended them on trees ; a custom witnessed among the Illinois and Aleutian islanders. And the Tungoose, a Siberian tribe, having dressed the body in its best apparel, inclosed it in a strong coffin, which is sus pended between two trees, while the arms or implements of the deceased arc buried tinder it. Others, as the Par sers, or Gabres of Persia and Bombay, are accustomed to expose the bodies of their deceased in an open edifice, they are devoured by birds of prey ; and in Thibet it is usual to deposit them in walled areas, inaccessible alike to wild beasts front below, and the fowls of the air from above. The Parsecs, who constitute a large propor tion of the population of Bombay, deposit their dead in a hollow tower of large diameter, mostly built up within, and having a sink or well in the centre. \Vhen the vultures, which always hover around, have cleaned the bones of their flesh, they are precipitated into the well, which has subterraneous communications. Those of the inhabitants of Thibet who are unwilling to consign their relatives to the ordinary cemeteries, cut their bodies into quarters, and carry them up to the hills, where they may be devoured by birds: but inhtunation never takes place. Amidst all these customs, however, few examples occur, in which the dead are committed to the waters: nay, it is not known to be practised by 'the rudest modern tribes, to whom the dispo sal of them otherwise must always prove difficult and laborious.
Inhumations arc generally such that the deceased may lie upon his back, or sometimes rest on one side ; and the remains of Christians may frequently be recognized in the preceding position, from the arms being crossed on the breast. But the ancient Nasomcnes, according to limo (lotus, were so averse to this mode of inhumation, that they not only interred the body in a sitting posture, as is done by the modern natives of Hudson's Bay, but prevent ed an expiring person from thus breathing his last. Some, though not many, inter their dead standing.
Inhumation has been practised alike by savage and civi lized nations : either simply in the ground, or in subterra neous structures ; in the vicinity, or at a distance from the dwelling of the deceased, or the habitations of the living. Near Sierra Leone, in Africa, children are frequently bu ried in the houses of their parents; and the Soosoos, an African tribe, often inter the dead in the streets of their villages ; but most commonly the place of sepulture is at some distance. The Jews buried their dead ; and the same was done by the Greeks and Romans their contemporaries, who practised superstitious ceremonies on the occasion. So intimate a resemblance was observed by the two latter, the one of which derived the greater part of their customs from the other, that the same illustrations may explain the funerals of both. The Romans, however, improved seve ral of those known among the Greeks ; and from the greater number of historians which have been preserved, we are better acquainted with them. When a person ex pired, his body was.ti asked with warm water, anointed with aromatic substances, or embalmed ; and each of the mem bers had a particular unguent. It was shrouded in fine linen, which was white with the Greeks, and black with the Romans; or the latter employed a common white toga. If the deceased was a distinguished person, he was clothed in his costume of ceremony, kept seven days during the necessary preparations for the funeral, and exposed on a state couch in the vestibule of the house, with his feet towards the door, at which were placed branches of the cypress or pine, according to his rank. In this we are
able to trace the origin of the mutes at modern funerals, stationed at the door, with black plumes mounted on poles. A guard was always placed beside the body, to prevent the commission of any theft ; but if it was that of a person of the first consequence, there were only young boys to drive away the flies. The seven days being elapsed, a herald publicly announced that the time of the funeral had arriv ed, and invited the attendance of all those who chose to as sist. None however, except the friends or relatives of pri vate individuals, did so; but public officers, or the people at large, attended, if the deceased had rendered services to the state. The body, according to a law ascribed to So lon, was carried out by the Greeks before sunrise, which was particularly adhered to in the obsequies of the young, in order that the luminary of clay might not throw his light on such a melancholy spectacle as their untimely end. '!'he deceased reposed on a bier, ornamented in proportion to his rank, crowned with a wreath of flowers, and having his face exposed, unless when it had been distorted in death. The custom of crowning with flowers, however, was not peculiar to the Romans. Several nations have been profuse in the use of them, and have also employed many varieties. Among the earlier Christians, it was cus tomary to carry evergreens before the deceased to Ids grave : and even so late as the 17th century, cypress gar lands were in great estimation at the funerals of the higher, ranks, and rosemary and bay at those .of r. Dio nysius Halicarnassus relates, that at the death of the daugh ter of Virginias, the Nvompi and virgins left their houses, deploring her fate, and some threw flowers and garlands on her couch. A parade and procession followed, of torch bearers, musicians, and the attendant relatives; and among the Romans there was a mimic, whose province it was to wear the same habit, and represent the same manners as the deceased. His own bust, along with the bust of his relations, was carried on an elevated platform, and his spoils in war or insignia of honour were likewise exhibi ted. Busts, however, were not borne before persons of low origin, nor before those who had been condemned for any crime, though they had been invested with dignities. Next followed hired mourners, women whose employment was to lament the deceased, and who lavishly intermingled his praises with their wailings. His friends and relatives, all clothed in black, joined in the procession ; and also his sons with their heads veiled from public view, and his daughters bareheaded, with dishevelled hair and barefooted, attired in white. Thus the body was conveyed to the place of sepul ture, or to the funeral pile, for inhumation and cremation were equally practised both by the Greeks and Romans : only the latter, being a much more expensive ceremony, was particularly reserved for wealthier persons. The origi nal spot of interment was probably not far from their usual dwelling ; but afterwards the Greeks selected one at a dis tance, which is invariably done by tribes removing from their primitive state. Plato says, the bodies of persons deceased should be conveyed to situations useless for other purposes, " because the natural fertility of the earth is not to be impaired either by the dead or the living." But they were careful always to lay the head towards the east, while other nations arc indifferent about the position; and the Christians uniformly lay it to the west. Thus in the accidental discovery of cemeteries in Britain, of which no memorial remains, we can ascertain whether they have been used anterior to the introduction of Christianity, by the head lying to the west or otherwise. The laws of the twelve tables prohibited interment within the city of Rome ; and therefore cemeteries were prepared in the fields, or near the high-ways, and often consisted of brick or stone buildings, with a number of niches, whence they were call ed Columbarium. Many minor ceremonies took place with these two nations, such as inhaling the dying breath of the deceased, as if to receive his soul ; the nearest relation first closing and again opening his eyes, and putting a coin in his mouth, to pay the freight to Charon across the Sty gian ferry. These customs are now universally abrogated, from Greece being occupied by Mahometans and Chris tians, who practise very different ceremonies ; and from the .4oman territories being inhabited by Roman Catholics only.